Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-04-30

ties. 1t was generally conceded that the
cool nights was the cause of the failure,
and that if location had been selected
higher up the valley, removed from the in
fluence of trade winds and resultant cool
nights, success would have been certain.
Since then cotton has been most success
fully grown near Nicolaus, Suffer county,
where it matured to perfection, and
yielded a quality of staple, both in length
and fineness, equal to the best ever raised
in any of the Southern States. Samples of
it were exhibited at the recent citrus fair
in this city, and was thus pronounced by
cid cotton-growers and dealers, who ex-
amined it. Butte county, lying still fur
ther from the influence of the trade winds,
may therefore be regarded as the natural
home for the cotton plant. The loose, por-
Gus soil would absorb the suns heat to a
great depth, it having been demonstrated
by thermometrical tests often to the depth
of twenty feet in similar soils, and then
warm nights, aided by the heat in the
soil, would mature the growth of the plant
to its greatest perfection. Cotton has been
tested on a small scale on the opposite side
of the river, in Colusa county, successfully
ALFALFA.
This wonderfully productive forage
plant often called Chile clover, was orig
inally brought from Spain, where it is
called lucerne, to South America, and from
thence to this State, where, until recently,
it has been exclusively cultivated on the
bank lands of streams where no irrigation
is needed Of late years it has been plant
ed in large tracts in Southern California
and irrigated, where it yields prodi giously
Ten or twelve years ago alfalfa was thought
to be of such little value, that pressed into
bales and shipped to San Francisco, it was
almost unstable, selling the lowest of all
hays, often for one-half that of barley and
wheat hay, and in the markets was denomin-
ated Is cow hay" it not being thought fit
for horse feed. How ideas and prices have
changed Now it is considered the equal
of the best hay, and in quotations is never
more than dollar a ton below the very
best wheat and wild oat hay. The Feather
river bottoms are largely devoted to its
culture, where it is used as a pasture, cut
green and fed to stock, and cured as hay
and fed to beef cattle. We do not believe
there is single dairy on the Feather
river, but in speaking with some of the
farmers, they announced their intention of
engaging in butter-making shortly. The
famous gilt edge butter of the farmers of
the Sacramento, which commands the
highest prices in the markets, is made from
alfalfa fed cows, and while the lands adapted
to the growth of alfalfa on the Sacramento
Is generally restricted to a narrow strip Of
land lying along the banks of the river,
often only few rods in width, thus giving
comparatively but few acres to each
farmer, the lands suitable for alfalfa on
Feather river is miles in width, extending
up and down the stream for long distances.
On the Ord ranch, which lies along the
river, and contains |, 100 acres we are in
formed there are 700 acres devoted to alfalfa.
The Larkin ranch adjoining, and lying
below the Ord ranch, has hundreds of acres
in alfalfa. We do not believe such large
tracts Of alfalfa, raised without irrigation,
can be seen elsewhere in the State. Expert
ments are being made in raising alfalfa on
the live-oak lands near Gridley, and from
the appearance of the patches which we
were shown we should
PRONOUNCE THEM A SUCCESS.
On small patch particularly that we
were shown, We never saw better stand,
and an advantage that it possessed over the
bottom lands was that it was entirely free
from the numerous varieties of weeds with
which all bottom lands are infested With
perennial water at depth of twelve to
fourteen feet from the surface, and an open,
porous soil, we cannot see how it can help
being successfully raised. On the banks
of rivers which are planted in alfalfa, and
where the banks have become perpendicu-
lar by caving, caused by the erosion of the
current of the stream, we have seen roots
of alfalfa more than twenty feet in length,
extending to the water line, and that, too,
through the thick, compact clay soil of
which the banks are formed As moisture
is the all-needful for successful alfalfa cult
ure, we can see no reason why it cannot be
successfully grown on the lands surround
ing Gridley, and without irrigation.